Proyecto REC “Roads as Energetic Crops” Carreteras energéticas mediante captación piezoeléctrica = Project REC Roads as Energetic Crops. Energetic roads through piezoelectric harvesting

Resumen

A road is designed and built for motor traffic. Conventional roads are conceived to sustain the motion of vehicles, thus designed to cover mechanical, security and comfort needs. But, is it possible to extract energy from roads? This is the main goal of the present work: to be able to change the concept of traffic infrastructure towards a concept of active and intelligent infrastructure. In doing so, all the options for energy harvesting have been evaluated in the frame of a road, as well as the main potential uses of this energy. The challenge was focused on the recovery of mechanical and vibrational energy through embedded piezoelectric transducers under the surface layer. With this approach, several prototypes were built in order to get reliable energy harvesting data: the storage and use of energy captured out the pulses generated from motor traffic is viable.